Editorial Reviews

A Charlie Brown Christmas 50th Anniversay Deluxe Edition (DVD)

Christmastime is here. Happiness and cheer. And for Peanuts fans everywhere, it just wouldn't be Christmas without this classic holiday delight. Christmas lights may be twinkling red and green, but Charlie Brown has the Yuletide blues. To get in the holiday spirit, he takes Lucy's advice and directs the Christmas play. And what's a Christmas play without a Christmas tree? But everyone makes fun of the short, spindly nevergreen Charlie Brown brings back – until the real meaning of Christmas works its magic once again in this Remastered Deluxe Edition with Improved Picture and Audio.

Top customer reviews

I love A Charlie Brown Christmas. I even love It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown (both of which I still own crumbling VHS copies of). But this new 50th Anniversary DVD is the laziest repack I've ever seen. All that's different is a terrible "Eco-friendly" DVD case, a nice shimmery slipcover, and that's it. If you want a version of Charlie Brown Christmas, please don't buy the 50th Anniversary Special Edition. PLEASE try to wait until WHV decides to finally make a new DVD master and actually decide to TRY and give us actual individual specials on DVD and get all of them an equal royal treatment.

It’s amazing how truly ‘timeless’ the animated-special “A Charlie Brown Christmas” has been for 50 years!First broadcast on December 9, 1965 (even before I was born) – but remaining the perennial-favorite Christmas special during that full half-Century (the only possible rival being Rankin-Bass’ beloved original stop-motion “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer”) but in a sense “A Charlie Brown Christmas” evokes more of the true Christmas Spirit (and inherent authentic message) that is quite sincerely-heartfelt and genuinely moving in a number of places: as when Linus reminds his friends (and us all) about the true meaning of Christmas (beyond the simple materialism and superficial-glitter), and also when the powerful compassion of Charlie Brown’s friends literally transforms the sad/shabby downtrodden and undernourished little misshapen tree into a joyously-healthy-happy-strong ‘Tannenbaum’ worthy of the Christmas celebration!

And to Top it all off = that brilliant and inspiringly jazzy & uplifting Music-Score from the ingenious composer-performer Vince Guaraldi* = giving all of us some of the best most joyous Christmas gifts ever!

Way ahead of its time in 1965 = and perhaps needed even more now, to bring some genuine Christmas-Cheer to our somewhat forlorn-tenuous times.

Note: this special was directed by the brilliant Bill Melendez, the inspired director-producer of most of the Charlie Brown TV specials and movies and hallowed voice of ‘Snoopy’ (prior to his passing in 2008) = handpicked by creator Charles Schulz to bring the ‘peanuts’ gang to animated ‘Life’

note*: towards finale the 'Peanuts' perform a moving rendition of "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing!" =Music by the great composer Felix Mendelssohn, and words by the British-born Charles Wesley

I have the DVD of this which I bought about 10 years ago, which is pretty good visually and not too good sonically. So I bought this Blu Ray thinking that it would be as spectacular and pristine as the Blue Ray of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" which I also bought recently. I was disappointed. The DVD was apparently made from a taped copy that was used for TV broadcast. I remember when it was originally broadcast, the carol "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" sung by the kids at the end credits was played to the end of the carol. Many years later, the volume was turned down toward the end of the carol and cut off before the end, obviously to squeeze in more room for commercials. This Blue Ray is identical, lowering the volume to zero before the end of the song at precisely the same spot, which means the Blue ray was produced from the same taped copy and not from the original film. It is sharper and the colors more vivid than the DVD, but it is nothing but a remastered version of the tape in Blue Ray. Moreover, there are numerous points where the images go slightly out of register, and the skin tone colors shift within the same frames. There is also some distortion and static crackling at some points on the left rear surround channel. This is not my setup, it is the Blue Ray. I have thrown this Blue Ray in the garbage and will be continuing to watch the DVD, until such time, if ever, they come out with another Blue Ray version and do it right.

I just love Charlie brown. I have always watched this from the time it came out.

The Christmas tree is such a hoot, I had one like this for my first Christmas on my own many years ago.

The sad little tree turns out to not look so bad after they get done with a few decorations. It is a good show for all ages . I love how on digital I can watch any time of the year. I play this in the car while driving to work and have it plugged into the radio. I don't need to see the video as I know what is going on, the audio is all I need to laugh as I drive.

Got this for a Christmas present for my dad. We can never find a decent version on the TV anymore, and our original hard copy was destroyed. He was very happy for this little piece of nostalgia. The video and sound look great, and the price can't be beat. It was definitely nice watching this on Christmas Day! No commercials, poor editing, or anything.

I really enjoyed watching A Charlie Brown Christmas again this year - and I'm a long ways from being a kid. I have always loved this movie and the music and the nostalgia of the era when it was created. It's a Christmas necessity - Christmas just wouldn't be the same without watching this movie at least once. Of course the best part is where Linus tells Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about.

I first saw this episode on TV, with a classic message by Linus. It's something I alwas look forward to on Christmas Eve, to watch and enjoy the Peanuts gang, with Linus' Christmas message, and the antics by Snoopy. It also features another episode called, It's Christmastime Charlie Brown, and it also has a featurette showing how Charlie Brown Christmas is made!